Blogs for international financial freedom seekers

The good news? You’re able to read English – and to put up with long, syllable-strewn sentences balanced by the occasional geeky joke – and so you’re reading Monevator.

Hurrah! Long may it continue!

But what if you live in Germany, or Sweden, or Barbados? The principles of personal finance and good investing may be international. But the vagaries of local taxes and regulations or what products and services are available in your country will vary.

So a few months ago I askedMonevator readers to share their best suggestions for personal finance blogs from outside the UK and the US that they know and read themselves.

Not mainstream media resources – they’re myriad, and easily found – but websites with reports from the trenches written by everyday investors and seekers after financial freedom.

Below is a list of what you came up with, together with a few words of explanation – paraphrased in most cases from the websites.

Many of the blogs you put forward are actually written in English. Perhaps that isn’t surprise given those making the suggestions were also reading Monevator? Regardless, it means that even if you’re investing with both your feet planted in Blighty, you might find a likely foreign sort to have a fling with.

Beware: I have spent an enjoyable day clicking around these sites but I haven’t done deep due diligence. I’m relying on reader suggestions. I skipped a few, but if any of the remaining ones I’ve listed are scams or similar, please do shout below. Don’t take them as gospel until you’ve had a good dig. Actually you should never take anything on the Internet as gospel, even the stuff we write. (Except of course inspirational quotes written in Copperplate Gothic font and superimposed onto pictures of snowy mountains or tropical sunsets. Those all speak the truth and are sacred.)

Dividends Down Under – A young couple detail their dividend-focused journey to financial independence.

Barbados

Odd Cents –Information about spending and saving, which as the author points out “pretty much encompasses everything in the finance world”. It’s curious to read a site like this from a country you might think of as a paradise escape destination.

Belgium

No More Waffles – A 26-year-old guy from Belgium trying to save and invest his way towards financial independence.

Canadian Couch Potato – A regular in our Weekend Reading links, offers peerless advice on passive investing through index funds. Only a shame that so much of the detail is for Canadians. Unless, of course, you’re Canadian.

Canadian Money Forum – A message board about money for Canadians. Gotta envy the connection between the labeling on the tin and what it does inside. (In contrast, what kind of fool would make up a word for the name his blog? *cough cough*)

My Million Dollar Journey – One of the oldies, it’s been around as long as Monevator. The author hit the million, and now riffs on general financial freedom topics as well as following the progress of a handful of guinea pigs readers.

My Own Advisor – Also aiming for a million Canadian dollars, with a focus on dividend income.

Les investisseurs – I know, it sounds like an exciting art house movie! But apparently it just means ‘investors’ in French. Monevator reader DavidChevance says of the site: “This is more a forum than a blog, however the issues discussed on it are very similar to those addressed on Monevator, with a significant bias towards investment in property, reflecting the widespread French aversion towards the stock market.”

Germany

Der Privatier – The author explains his path to financial freedom, how to grow your capital, and how to use it to generate a passive income.

Exstudentin – A 23-year old ex-student reports on her journey towards a quietly fulfilling life.

Finanzglück – German dad in his mid-30s with two young kids who aims to retire early. Writes about index investing, real estate, and family life.

Finanzwesir – Founded on the principle that the level of financial literacy today is around the lamentable equivalent of the “Can you get pregnant by kissing?” questions of the early last century. I like how he calls an emergency fund a ‘fire brigade’.

Frugalisten – According to Google Translate, the author is urging us to “say goodbye to the washcloth life”. I’d normally suggest something had been lost in transmission, except there’s also a photo of him waving around some currency together with a washcloth. Go take a look, German speakers. An adventure!

Klunkerchen – Aimed “at women (and all people)”. Interesting classification system, Klunkerchen! Seems very comprehensive. I notice it runs on the same theme I started Monevator on, too, many years back, so I got a little nostalgic. Germans have a different perspective on personal finance to us Anglo-Saxon sorts in my experience, but that’s a post for another day.

What Life Could Be – A European take on financial independence. The husband and wife team are big fans of US blogs, but missed the lack of domestic detail.

India

Personal Finance Calculators – Monevator reader Shan tells us: “There are a gazillion blogs in India but this is an absolute must. Professor Pattu has multiple retirement spreadsheets and a steady stream of common sense investing tips.”

The Investor Challenge – Infrequently updated and a bit hard to fathom the gist of it from here, but a reader suggested it.

Spain

Ahorro Capital – Also suggested by Monevator reader David Chevance, who also suggested most of the other Spanish sites here. Dividend focused.

Cazadividendos – Provides “high quality technical advice, similar to Monevator, on topics like for example the tax treatment of foreign (i.e. non-Spanish) dividends, how to declare them in your tax return and how the reclaim the rest of the dividend withholding tax from the foreign authorities.”

Dividends.es – An investing blog whose author also runs Investorinteligente. (Both may now be defunct… not updated since July 2016.)

Enorme Piedra Redonda – More about about lifestyle, traveling cheaply, and meeting interesting people, as the author already took early retirement a few years ago. Infrequent posts. Our Spanish mole says it’s his favourite, as the blog owner is a great storyteller.

Invesorinteligente – An investing blog whose author also runs Dividends.es. (Both may now be defunct… not updated since July 2016.)

Jubilacion Express – Apparently it reads like a “newbies” blog but provides “detailed information”, according to our man in Spain. (At a glance it seems like it may be defunct, but my Spanish is diabolical.)

International / ex-pat

Andrew Hallam – Website home of the author of The Millionaire Teacher. Monevator reader Blacksmith salutes its “advice on passive investing, global diversification vs home currency bias, international discount brokerages, tips on practical implementation and pitfalls to avoid.”

The International Investor – TheAccumulator has linked to this one a few times. Advice and resources for investors in international markets.

Phew! A lot to chew through, but this list isn’t exhaustive – it’s just the sites you guys pointed me to. Have you got a favourite that isn’t on the list? Please tell us in the comments below, and add a few words explaining why it’s a good one. Also, regarding the post title I know that if you’re based in Japan or Barbados, then *we* are one of the international foreign blogs. But I didn’t want to say “outside the US and UK” in the title, as that could take the search engines in the wrong direction. Hence the island view of the world.

Thanks for reading! Monevator is a simply spiffing blog about making, saving, and investing money. Please do check out some of the best articles or follow our posts via Facebook, Twitter, email or RSS.

That sort of rent is to die for, I can see how they might imagine FI for those on a low income. They have got something right in Germany when they can say that a nursery school teacher can reach FI as well as an IT specialist, and it’s down to a much lower cost of housing by the looks of it.

Hi The Investor,
thanks for taking the effort to get this great collection together! I am very proud to be part of it.
Just to clearify the “washcloth life” thing: In German, you can call someone a “washcloth” who is a bit of a wimp or coward. I hope that explains the odd Google translation 😉

Two blogs that I would say are definitely missing on that list are http://finanzglueck.de/ and http://retireinprogress.com/.
The former is a German dad in his mid 30s with two young kids who aims to retire in ten years from now and blogs about index investing, real estate and family life. He writes in German.
The latter is an Italian Software Engineer working in Switzerland for a big tech company. His salary and saving rate (close to 70%) are really inspiring and his articles and writing style are just brilliant. He writes in English and aims to retire early in his early 40s.

Dividends Down Under is a young couple at the beginning of their FI journey, demonstrating how they investigate companies to buy shares in, and recording their dividends as they work to build a passive income stream.

Description ‘google translated’
Lawyer in the insurance industry who dream of one day be able to live on dividends. Here follow the building of an exciting global growth and dividend portfolio. The focus is on small quality companies with good growth and strong competitive advantages. Högutdelare are also welcome. Looking around the world and in the portfolio are companies from Sweden, Canada, South Africa and Asia

Hope this is of interest.

On a different subject

Having reached an age! I found your colleagues series of articles on using a selection of IT’s to produce an income very helpful. I am currently looking at worldwide ETF’s that would also produce an income stream, any thoughts?
Thanks for your always interesting views every week.

@ermine — Housing is lower cost in Germany, but then as I’m often reminded there’s lower cost housing in the UK, too, outside of the South East. Perhaps a greater difference is a wider spread of prosperity? There are several cities vying for importance in Germany as you know, compared to London or bust (I exaggerate to make the point) in the UK. Then again I also suspect that it should be harder to retire early etc in socially progressive countries because more of your income goes towards tax/the State for your future provision (or that of your fellow citizens) compared to say the US or even China. I guess we’re in the middle?

@Oliver — Thanks for the explanation! It’s good to have a memorable hook, eh? I’ll pop a link from the blog down to your comment when I get a moment. I’ve included your two suggestions, too.

@shan @pattu — You’re welcome, good to have an Indian site on the list.

@Mr RIP — Twice recommended! There’s a thing. 🙂

@William III @dorfdiva — Cheers, they’re on the list.

@Nick — No formal list. I suppose Weekend Reading is the closest thing, though that’s really biased by my own reading habits and slanted to investing, so there are some great personal finance blogs like MissThrifty and others that very seldom make the list.

@RetireJapan — You’re welcome. Ha ha, well I think this is more likely to be a slow burner… not sure how many Japanese readers we already have that will be clicking over to check you out, but hopefully will help 1-2 find you everyday forever more. 🙂

@MrsETT — Thanks, I’ve added it!

@Andrew — Thanks, have added. Glad you’ve enjoyed the site for a long time! That article is much-requested, but fits a little bit outside of the Venn diagram of interests for our contributors. (Our passive fund fan The Accumulator thinks you shouldn’t go for income but total return and sell capital, The Greybeard likes a bit of active/stability in the mix so prefers investment trusts, and I’m mostly a stock picker currently). I will re-raise and see if anyone is keener now. 🙂

Objective
Vanguard FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF seeks to track the performance of the index, a free float adjusted market-capitalisation-weighted index of common stocks of companies, excluding real estate trusts, in developed and emerging markets that pay dividends that are generally higher than average.

Investment Strategy
– The fund seeks to provide both diversified income and capital appreciation by tracking the performance of the index, a large- and mid-cap market-capitalisation-weighted index of developed and emerging market common stocks with generally higher than average forecasted dividend yields.
– The fund employs a passive management or indexing investment approach through the physical acquisition of securities, designed to track the performance of the index, a free-float market capitalisation weighted index.

Hi!
Thanks for writing about my blog. I’ll continue to write about, and invest in, small-caps all over the world. I strongly believe in smaller dividend paying companies, less analysed, with strong competitive advantages and good growth. Three examples are Savaria in Canada, Famous Brands in South Africa and eWork in Sweden. Full portfolio can be seen on my blog (to the right). Thanks again for writing about my blog! I’ll check out the others!

Thanks for these. Not a single blog from New Zealand – are there any other kiwi readers here? I confess I’ve not found a NZ blog worth reading (yet) – most of the so-called blogs are self promoting sales chatter (IMHO).

Willing to learn different or alternatively maybe there is a gap in the market!

Wow! Such an awesome list. Who knew there would be so many international financial independence blogs out there? I guess it makes sense as everybody everywhere Charlie wants the same thing. But very cool to see a consolidated list.